Big Four give cold shoulder to Snyder road plan

Photo David Dalton
From left, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson voiced their opinions about Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to raise $1.2 billion for highway and road improvements at Wednesday’s Detroit Economic Club luncheon held in the basement of Cobo Center, site of the North American International Auto Show

Appearing before a large business crowd at the auto show Thursday, the Big Four regional leaders kicked to the curb Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to raise $1.2 billion for highway and road improvements that was unveiled in Snyder’s State of the State address.

The plan to raise vehicle registration fees by an average of $120 per year was not supported by any of the officials — Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.

Ficano said the secondary option in the Snyder proposal that would allow counties to separately raise vehicle fees to fund additional local road projects was a poor idea. The plan would “pit one county against another” as officials risked losing residents by creating a new levy.

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He said additional road funding is needed, but it should be raised at the state level.

Bing said he is ambivalent about the plan because “we know it will produce new jobs across the state but we’re not sure it will mean jobs for the city of Detroit.”

Hackel said the plan needs much more study and he plans to meet with constituents of all types to gauge the public reaction. Until he senses a consensus, he added, he will not endorse or oppose the governor’s proposal.

“The thing I hate is when a public official criticizes something but offers no alternatives or solutions,” said Hackel, a Macomb Township Democrat.

Patterson came closest to an outright rejection of the plan, suggesting that more revenue is not the solution for fixing Michigan roads.

“I’m from the school that says the problem is not that we are taxed too little, we spend too much,” said the Republican executive.

In addition to a significant boost in registration fees, the governor proposes a switch in the state gasoline tax from a levy at the pump to a tax at the wholesale level, which would raise new revenues by an unspecified amount.

Michigan’s current tax — 19-cents-per-gallon for gasoline and 15 cents for diesel — has not been adjusted in nearly 16 years.

As a result, Snyder said in his Wednesday speech at the Capitol, the state is falling further behind a reasonable schedule to upgrade roads and highways. Waiting longer for a solution due to political conflicts in the Legislature, he warned, will only lead to a spiraling price tag as roadways and bridges are allowed to crumble.

The Big Four’s comments came at a Detroit Economic Club luncheon attended by about 500 regional business leaders and held in the basement of Cobo Center, site of the North American International Auto Show.

The officials focused mostly on transportation — on roads, on the domestic auto industry’s big comeback, and on the legislative approval of a Regional Transit Authority after 30 years of trying. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is scheduled to appear at Cobo on Friday to announce that the RTA formation has led to federal funding for the M-1 project, a light rail line that will travel on Woodward from Detroit’s downtown to the New Center area.

Hackel said he is looking to appoint two “subject-matter experts” to the RTA board who are experts in finance and law, not transportation. The executive also said Assistant Executive Melissa Roy will form a transit advisory council that will serve as a watchdog over the RTA system, which will be highlighted by rapid-transit buses — similar to small trains on wheels — on major roads in the tri-county area.

The crowd on hand also saluted Patterson, still confined to a wheelchair after suffering numerous broken bones in an August car crash — by giving him a hearty standing ovation.

The longtime Oakland executive said he hoped to be walking by now but his injuries were far more significant than originally reported. He said he was unconscious for 26 or 27 days after the Pontiac accident and when he finally awoke his team of physicians gave him a 3 percent chance of surviving.

A 1-hour broadcast of the Big Four discussion will be televised at 11 a.m. on Sunday on WWJ-TV Channel 62.